South Korea’s tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. filed a patent for a new way of unlocking smartphones by freely drawing lines on screens, the country’s patent agency said Thursday.

The world’s top smartphone maker said the new method is based on catching intersecting points of lines drawn on the screens, allowing users to set a wider choice of codes compared to Samsung’s current system of connecting designated circles.

“The feature allows users to unlock (smartphones) in a more convenient way,” Samsung said in its patent filing. “As patterns are not restricted to an area, spot or shape, users can unlock screens more freely than before.”

The patent was filed by Samsung in September 2012 and was disclosed by the state-run Korean Intellectual Property Office on Thursday.

Global tech firms have been sharpening unlocking technology as their newest features on smartphones as security has become a major concern for users. (Yonhap)